Your Morning Phil: Marmol, Floyd, Appel

Talking baseball while wondering if the Chicago Bears can win without Brian Urlacher:

1. Maybe the Angels knew what they were doing when they tried to get Carlos Marmol. Maybe another good offer will come along for him before too long.

Dale Sveum was talking about Marmol on Tuesday, and tossed out an interesting claim. “You could arguably say he was the best closer in baseball after he came back in the closing role,’’ Sveum said. “It would have been nice to have 50 (save) opportunities. He didn't have that many opportunities, but he was still really good. ‘’

Was Sveum offering a shameless plug in trying to pump up Marmol’s value? Maybe. But check out how well he did pitch in the second half of the season. The Cubs' manager has a point.

After compiling a 5.61 earned run average in the first half of the season, with eight saves in 10 chances, Marmol was 12-for-13 with a 1.52 ERA after the All-Star break. He struck out 39 in 29 2-3 innings, holding opponents to a .194 batting average. However, there was a fly in the pudding. He still walked 17.

Jed Hoyer, the Cubs’ general manager, says Marmol had gotten “slider happy’’ early in the season. With the help of pitching coach Chris Bosio, he developed the confidence to re-establish his fastball, using it to set up the slider, not the other way around.

While Sveum and everyone with the Cubs says Marmol is the closer, there’s no doubt that the acquisition of Japanese closer Kyuji Fujikawa makes it even easier to trade Marmol, when the next chance comes along.

2. Josh Hamilton headed home from the winter meetings Tuesday night, without having found the team willing to give him the seven-year, $175-million deal he is seeking. He may be headed back to the Rangers but it seems that Nolan Ryan’s team is focused more on adding Zack Greinke than re-signing Hamilton. It’s possible that none of the big free-agent deals get done before teams head home from Nashville on Thursday. The White Sox have made Gavin Floyd available in trades but seem unlikely to move him until Greinke and Anibal Sanchez have signed, as Floyd could become a target for teams that miss out on the top two free-agent starters.

3. The Cubs have the second pick in next June’s draft and based on their current strategy seem headed toward a return to the top of the draft in 2014. A survey of scouts at the winter meetings say they believe the Cubs are currently focused on landing one of the top college pitchers with their 2013 pick, including two Scott Boras clients – Stanford’s Mark Appel and Indiana State’s Sean Manaea. Arkansas’ Ryne Stanek and Florida’s Jonathon Crawford are also expected to go high in the draft. As for the 2014 class, according to scouts, the guys to watch are North Carolina State lefty Carlos Rodon and a trio of high school players – power-hitting California catcher Alex Jackson, Florida right-hander Touki Toussaint and power-hitting California shortstop Jacob Gatewood. Rodon was pitching better than Appel and the rest of the other college pitchers at the end of last season. Some thought he might transfer to a junior college to be eligible for the 2013 staff but stayed at North Carolina State, where he’s two college seasons away from the draft. He could pitch in the big leagues in 2015, according to scouts.